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*Looking for Advice* Hi there! I am new (just joined yesterday), so apologies if I am not doing this right, but I am wondering if anyone might be willing to provide their insight/advice on approaching this situation. Relatively short version~~~ -I am currently an RA at the Fed (have been remote my entire time there), and I have applied to both PhD Econ programs and Pre-Docs. -PhD application was not well prepared (GRE = bad, SOP meh, letters of rec are B to B+ grade-ish overall I’d guess), didn't even apply to a couple of my dream schools -Got in to a ~top 20 and ~top 25 school for econ PhD (but I am not terribly passionate about either) -Got in to a pre-doc at a top business school with a great Econ department (top ~2 Econ department, would be working with a full prof with an Econ degree and an AP with a management degree focused on econ-related issues) --> Unsure of what to do I don't want to take the existing PhD offer and then always wonder "what if" I had truly put together the best application I could and applied to all of my target schools On the flip side, I don't want to take another pre-doc only to do worse in the next cycle I apply to. (As an aside, I am not terribly concerned about the age and money issue at this time, except in the ways that they might affect my career outcomes) Any thoughts, comments, roasting, recommendations, etc. are all very much appreciated. 😓

Hello everyone, I got an offer for an econ-finance 2 year pre-doc starting this fall. I am finishing my master's now from a (very?) good European university with good but not outstanding grades. I have both RA and TA experience and a couple of publications from my time as an RA. I was thinking of applying to Econ PhDs next year and work as predoc/full time RA while applying. I think I would get very good recommendations and like the place and profs, but is it worth waiting two years, considering I already have a master's and RA experience? At the same time I have no other offers so I don't know whether I am confident enough to decline. Any thoughts?

Edit: This is for applications to a PhD in Economics Edit2: And GRE is 170Q, for what it's worth. I've posted something similar on Reddit, but I since discovered these forums. My profile is "strongly mixed," to say the least. I have a very high grad average (only comprising a few classes over two years; the rest of the time I was a predoc at a strong department.) And a ~3.2 undergrad GPA from a recognizable place, including a litany of graduate math and economics classes. Some of these I did very well in, some not. The discontinuity is due to a chronic health condition, which was finally treated late in my undergrad. My predoc has led to a publication. And one of my undergrad professors (who wrote me letters for this predoc) described me as "by far the best undergrad I've ever seen," so I have some hope that my letters are strong. Perhaps I should have asked this prof to referee me for PhD applications, but I figured recent is better. The other thing to mention is that I probably have unusual skills in computer programming. I'm the maintainer of some "big in Japan" (i.e., popular amongst a small set) open-source economic packages that have been accepted for talks at conferences. I've applied to about 15 well-known departments in the 10-30 range, including some Master's programs, and a smattering in 30-50. My predoc institution is probably my best shot for a good placement, in my mind. Mainly I'm opening this thread to calibrate my expectations, and get advice on how to approach this profile in any remaining applications. And to see if there are any schools I should apply to before the Jan. 1/Jan. 15 deadline. Thanks in advance.